Inequality among people in village and changes in administration
But not all the members of the community were equal. Inequality had already appeared among the Anglo-Saxons before the conquest of Britain The tribal nobility, that is, military leaders and elders, possessed more land and cattle than other tribesmen. Their land was cultivated by prisoners of war who were their slaves.
However, the bulk of the Anglo-Saxons were made up of free community members. These free peasants worked for themselves and had enough land and cattle to feed their families. The prisoners of war the Anglo-Saxons were given small plots of land for their own use.
The effect of the conquest of Britain was to increase the wealth of the Anglo-Saxon nobility. The elders and military leaders distributed the land and cattle among the tribesmen in the conquered country and they got more land and cattle than the rank-and-file members of the tribe.
In the 7th-9th centuries gradual changes were taking place among the members of the community too. The arable land which had been held by separate families now became their private property. It could be not only inherited by the members of one family as before but it could be sold, presented or given in return for debts to another owner. As a result, inequality among the members of the community was growing. Thus, in the 7th-8th centuries feudal relations were beginning to develop among the Anglo-Saxons, that is, a class of rich landowners was forming and the free peasants were gradually losing their land and freedom. But it was a slow process in Britain.
With the development of feudal relations great changes were taking place in administration too. Rich landowners were given great power over the peasants.
At first after the conquest of Britain, folk-moots at which the members of the free communities gathered were held periodically. The hundred-moots presided over by an elected elder were held once a month. At the hundred-moots the men who were elected were sent as representatives to a shire-moot. (A shire was a larger district than a hundred.) The shire-moots were presided over by shire-reeves, or sheriffs, and were held two or three times a year.
In the 9th century the free members of the community were not sent to the hundred-moot any longer; it was the greatest and the most influential landlords of the hundred who attended the hundred-moot and administeredjustice there.
The hundred-elder was now one of the royal officials, a representative of the central power in a hundred, and the sheriff became the king’s chief official in the shire. The sheriff was responsible for justice and he presided over the shire-moots on behalf of the king. The king himself became the supreme judge.
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Soon afterwards the moots lost their importance and now it was the great council of the most powerful men in the country, known as the Witenagemot (council of the wise men), that gave advice to the king on all important matters. The Anglo-Saxon kings declared war and made peace, they passed laws and imposed taxes. But they always consulted “the wise men”, that is the greatest landlords of the country.
Thus with the development of feudal relations, with the growth of big landed possessions all the important problems in the country were decided by the big landowners. The status of a man in society depended on how much land he possessed. It also depended on the man’s rank and his relation to the king. The king’s warriors and officials held more land and they ruled the country.
Conversion to Christianity
The Christian Church also influenced the growth of the new feudal relations a great deal. The conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity began at the end of the 6th century (597) and was completed, in the main, in the second half of the 7th century.
Before this the Angles, Saxons and Jutes had been pagans, that is, they believed in many gods. They worshipped the sun and the moon, the sea, springs and trees, and other pagan gods.
Paganism did not teach obedience and when feudal relations began to develop among the Anglo-Saxons this religion was of no use to the kings and landlords. They needed a religion which would teach the peasants that this order of society in which the land and power belonged to the king and the lords and in which the peasants had to work for their masters, had been established by God.
The religion that was to serve the interests of the rich Anglo-Saxons was Christianity. Christianity talked the poor people into being obedient; it taught them to be meek and patient and to obey their masters. In return for their patience and obedience Christianity promised them eternal happiness after death in “the next world”.
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The spread of Christianity brought about important changes in the life of the Anglo-Saxons. Many new churches and monasteries were built all over the country. The kings and nobles granted much land to the bishops and monasteries, and that promoted the growth of the big landed estates. The kings also granted them the right to collect dues from the population and to administer justice on their estates. Thus alongside with the landlords the churchmen became great landowner too.
Besides, the spread of Christianity was of great importance for the growth of culture in Britain. The Roman monks who were converting the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity helped to spread Roman culture in the country again. The Roman monks brought many books to Britain. Most of them were religious books and they were all written in Latin and Greek. The church services were also conducted in Latin.
The Latin language was again heard in Britain. Latin was of international importance at that time, as it was used by learned men in all countries. They wrote their books in Latin so that they could be understood by the learned men of other countries.
The Anglo-Saxons spoke quite a different language of Germanic origin and did not understand Latin. The Anglo-Saxon nobles were ignorant; many of them were quite illiterate and could not even sign their own names. No one except the monks knew Latin and the monasteries became centres of knowledge and learning in those early times. The first libraries and schools for the clergy were set up in monasteries. The monks copied out many handwritten books and even translated some books from Latin and Greek into Anglo-Saxon. Some monks were chroniclers — they kept a record of the important events of each year. Psalters, chronicles and other manuscripts written by the medieval monks are very important historical documents today.
However the cultural influence of the Church affected only a small number of people and mainly the clergy. The rank-and-file Anglo-Saxons remained completely illiterate.
The Christian religion had a tremendous influence over men’s minds and actions. It controlled the most important events of their life-baptism, marriage and burial. There was a church in every village and the villagers were compelled to attend the religious services held by the priests. The priest taught that it was the right of the nobles due to their position as landlords to keep order and justice on their estates. They made the villagers believe that it was his duty to obey the landlords. They promised that he would be rewarded in the after-life for all his sufferings. And the villager believed that the clergymen had the power to reward him or to send him to eternal torment after his death. Thus the Church became a powerful instrument in the hands of the feudal lords. The churchmen who become rich landlords themselves did their utmost to preach up the king, to justify the exploitation of the peasants and the power of the great landowners over them.
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QUESTIONS FOR CONTROL
1. What do we know about the Iberians?
2. Prove that the Celts were at a higher stage of social development than the Iberians.
3. Why did the primitive people have to live collectively?
4. How was a tribe governed?
5. What was the role of the druids in the life of Celts?
6. How did the way of life in the Roman Empire differ from the life of the Celts in the 1st century A.D.?
7. Give an account of the Roman invasions of Britain in the 1st century B.C. and in the 1st century A.D. Compare the results.
8. Did the Romans conquer all parts of Britain?
9. By what means did the Romans secure their position in Britain? Why was so much importance attached to roads?
10. How did the Roman way of life influence the life of the Celts?
11. What were the reasons for the weakening and fall of the Roman Empire?
12. How did the Romans influence the life of the Celts?
13. Why was it difficult for the Anglo-Saxon to conquer Britain?
14. What was the fate of the Celts as a result of the Anglo-Saxon conquest?
15. What kingdoms and when were finally formed on the territory of Britain? Use the map of Britain and tell about Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
16. How did the Saxons differ from the Romans?
17. What unit of society appeared that time?
18. Describe the Anglo-Saxon village.
19. What were the main occupations of the Anglo-Saxons?
20. What can you say about the labour productivity of arable-farming and cattle-breeding in Anglo-Saxon times?
21. Prove that each Anglo-Saxon village was self-sufficient in the 5-7th centuries. Why was there so little trading?
22. Describe the communal way of life in Anglo-Saxon village.
23. Did the tribal nobility become richer as a result of the conquest?
24. How did the administration ofthe Anglo-Saxons change in the 9th century?
25. When did the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity take place?
26. Why the Anglo-Saxon kings and nobles accepted Christianity first?
27. How did the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity influence the cultural development of Britain?
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